The wine of the vintage is the Perrin’s 2012 Châteauneuf du Pape Hommage A Jacques Perrin, and it will most likely merit a perfect rating in another couple of years. Full-bodied, massive and layered on the palate, with awesome purity and freshness, it delivers incredible aromatics of beef blood, truffle, graphite, iron and black and blue fruits. Given all of the fruit and texture, you almost have to hunt for the structure here, but trust me, it’s there. The tasting at Beaucastel took place a 9 a.m., and even then, this is one wine I found impossible to spit. It’s a tour de force that will have 3-4 decades of life. Drink 2022 - 2042.

Jeb Dunnuck (eRobertParker.com, Oct 2014)

Spice, lift and zest - the hallmarks of the vintage are immediately apparent on the nose. Some woody, roasted spices are starting to take root now, along with damsons, and crushed damson stones. Rounded, rich and plush on the palate, all very well integrated, such delicious, intense juice. The alcohol is high but it gives the wine its foundation this year - a jolly, red-cheeked vintage built around alcohol, but not dominated by it. Delicious now, will be even better later.

Inky ruby. Heady cherry and blackcurrant scents are complicated by smoky herbs, pipe tobacco, potpourri and dusty minerals. Broad and pliant, offering palate-staining dark berry preserve flavors given lift and bite by a spicecake quality. Sweet and velvety on the relentless finish, which leaves candied cherry and mineral notes behind.